Haundar
Haundar Gargantuan Magical Beast Hit Dice: 20d10+140 (250 hp) Initiative: -1 Speed: 15 ft. (3 squares), fly 30 ft. (poor) Armor Class: 18 (-4 size, -1 Dex, +13 natural), touch 5, flat-footed 18 Base Attack/Grapple: +20/+44 Attack: Bite +28 melee (2d8+18 plus 1d6 acid) Full Attack: Bite +28 melee (2d8+18 plus 1d6 acid) Space/Reach: 20 ft./20 ft. Special Attacks: Acid bite, spit acid burst Special Qualities: Cold tolerance, darkvision 60 ft., flight, low-light vision, weak spot Saves: Fort +19, Ref +13, Will +6 Abilities: Str 34, Dex 8, Con 25, Int 3, Wis 10, Cha 7 Skills: Spot +26 Feats: Ability Focus (spit acid burst), Flyby Attack, Hover, Lightning Reflexes, Power Attack, Skill Focus (Spot), Snatch Environment: Any cold land Organization: Solitary Challenge Rating: 12 Treasure: None Alignment: Always neutral Advancement: 21-40 HD (Gargantuan); 41-60 HD (Colossal) Level Adjustment: - A gigantic slug, easily the length of five men, floats through the air. A thick, flat, articulated shell covers most of its head and back. A pair of eyestalks sprout from its head, while two lower psuedopods surround a mouth lined with sharklike teeth. Its entire body is white, but shimmers a faint green. Haundars are massive ice-slugs found in even the most vicious of polar climes. They migrate icy wastes, following the migration patterns of other creatures, such as bears, seals, moose, and even the occasional humanoid. Haundars rest in large rocky caves, icy crevasses, or if they cannot find a suitable locale, dig caverns in the ice with their acid. Haundar are dangerous predators, eating anything they can catch. When food grows scares, the haundar makes a lair and mates. Haundar are hermaphroditic, and reproduce only once in their lifetimes. A haundar lays a clutch of 4d4 eggs before falling dormant for several weeks. As the hatchlings emerge, they eat their dormant parent. Hatchlings grow slowly (gaining 1 HD and 1 and 1/2 feet of length annually). Few survive to adulthood. Haundar are prone to wormlike parasites known as haun broods. Haundars are often hunted by the sha'az. A single haundar can feed an entire sha'az hive for weeks. They are also hunted for their blubber (used in oils), their eyestalks and pseduopods (power components for low-light vision and levitation magic, respectively), and their shells (which can be fashioned into armor, see below). A haundar is 30 feet long and weighs 25,000 pounds. Haundars live up to 60 years. COMBAT A haundar attempts to bite anything it can reach, spraying acid on prey beyond its reach. A haundar can be blinded by severing its eyestalks. To sever an eyestalk, an opponent must make a successful sunder attempt with a slashing weapon. (The player should declare where the attack is aimed before making the attack roll.) Making a sunder attempt provokes an attack of opportunity unless the foe has the Improved Sunder feat. An opponent can strike at a haundar’s eyestalks from any position in which he could strike at the haundar itself. An opponent can ready an action to attempt to sunder a haundar’s eyestalk when the creature bites at him. Each of a haundar's eyestalks has 10 hit points. Losing an eyestalk deals 5 hp of damage to the body. A blinded haundar will retreat from melee and attack only to defend itself. The haundar's sensory pseudopods can be severed in the same manner as the eyestalks. Pseudopods have 10 hp, and losing a pseudopod deals 5 hp damage to the body. A haundar without pseudopods will not fly due to lack of sensory information. A severed eyestalk or pseudopod will regrow in 1 month. If a haundar's eyestalks or pseudopods are attacked, it will retract them into its body, so they are not vulnerable to sundering. Acid Bite (Ex): A haundar's bite deals 1d6 points of acid damage in addition to any other damage it deals. The damage is not doubled on a critical hit. Cold Tolerance (Ex): A haundar never needs to make Fortitude saves to avoid nonlethal damage in regions of extreme cold. Flight (Ex): A haundar's body is naturally buoyant. This buoyancy allows it to fly at a speed of 30 feet. This buoyancy also grants it a permanent feather fall effect (as the spell) with personal range. Because its flight is dependent upon sensors within its psuedopods, a haundar that has lost both pseudopods may not fly until at least one has been regrown. Spit Acid Burst (Ex): Haundars can spit a ball of caustic saliva with a range of 20 feet that bursts in a 10-foot radius, dealing 4d8 points of acid damage on a successful hit (Reflex DC 27 half). Clothing and armor worn by creatures in the area dissolves and becomes useless immediately unless the item succeeds on a DC 29 Reflex save. The save DC is Constitution-based. Weak Spot (Ex): A haundar has several weak spots in its armored shell. As a result, a successful critical hit with a slashing or piercing weapon is treated as if its multiplier were one higher. (Thus, a longsword would deal triple damage, and a greataxe quadruple). Skills: A haundar has a +8 racial bonus on Move Silently checks. *In areas of snow, ice, or tundra, a haundar gains a +8? racial bonus on Hide checks. Haundar Armor Armorsmiths can work with the armor plates of a haundar to produce armor or shields of masterwork quality. One Gargantuan haundar provides enough armor to produce a suit of masterwork armor for a Huge creature. By selecting only choice scales and bits of hide, an armorsmith can produce one suit of masterwork banded mail for a Large creature, or one suit of masterwork half-plate for a Medium creature, or one masterwork breastplate or suit of full plate for a Small creature. (Multiple haundars can be used to create armor for larger creatures.) In each case, enough hide is available to produce a small or large masterwork shield in addition to the armor. Because haundar armor isn’t made of metal, druids can wear it without penalty. Haundar armor costs double what masterwork armor of that type ordinarily costs, but it takes no longer to make than ordinary armor of that type. It weighs half as much as the corresponding type of metal armor. Haundar armor has 10 hit points per inch of thickness and hardness 7. Originally appeared in Monstrous Compendium Forgotten Realms Appendix (MC11)(1991). Category:Magical beasts